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Friday, March 29, 2013

Sermon 03292013 Good Friday

May the words of my mouth and the meditations of our hearts
be pleasing in Your sight, O Lord, our Rock and our Redeemer. AMEN.

Let us pray! Almighty
God, Your Son Jesus Christ graciously suffered and died on the Cross of Calvary
for we His family through our baptism into His life and death. Enable us to see the Cross not as an end, but
the ultimate sacrifice for our sins and the sins of all of mankind, for Jesus
offered Himself freely and was watched by the Centurion in order for the plan
of salvation to be complete. Enable us
to embrace the Cross of Christ as the ultimate payment for our sins and the
sins of all mankind, including all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel this
Good Friday. AMEN.

There is an old hymn which asks a poignant question as we
gather here this Good Friday evening.
Matter of fact it was the last hymn yesterday and one of the preludes
that Marla played earlier. It asks a
simple question, “Were you there when they crucified my Lord?” As an African American Spiritual the words as
simple as they are clearly ask a question that all of us have to respond with
‘No’, but tonight we will hear about the Centurion in our series of People and
Places of Lent that can respond, “Yes, I was there.”

Hear the story of the Centurion from Matthew 27 (Matthew 27:48-54)

48 Immediately
one of them ran, and taking a sponge, he filled it with sour wine and put it on
a reed, and gave Him a drink.49 But the
restof themsaid, “Let us see whether Elijah will come
to save Him.”50 And
Jesuscried out again with a loud voice, and
yielded up His spirit.51 And
behold, theveil of the temple was torn in two from top to bottom; andthe earth shook and the rocks were split.52 The tombs were opened, and many bodies of thesaints who hadfallen asleep were raised;53 and
coming out of the tombs after His resurrection they enteredthe holy city and appeared to many.54 Now the centurion, and those who were with himkeeping guard over Jesus, when they sawthe earthquake and the things that were
happening, became very frightened and said, “Truly this wasthe Son of God!”

It
is clear from our vantage point two thousand years after the crucifixion of
Jesus Christ that this Centurion and his friends were one moment doubters and
the next moment, the Centurion showed mercy to Jesus Christ as He hung on the
Cross by trying to quench His thirst.
And the next moment the Centurion spoke the most profound words of the
entire Passion narrative. The Centurion confessed,
“Truly this was the Son of God!” The
Centurion had probably heard the stories about Jesus, seen with His own eyes
His suffering at the hands of his comrades and possibly even his own blows or
spit, but then after witnessing His final gasps for air, provided the most
profound witness of confession in all the Passion Narratives.

Was
it the Centurions fortune to be on duty that day? Or was it God’s plan? With Jesus Christ breathing His last and
yielding His Spirit, the events of the last 16 hours were quite dramatic and
traumatic and had taken their toll on Jesus.
Not only had Jesus eaten with His disciples in the Upper Room, He had
prayed into the late hours of the night, been captured in the Garden, tried by
the Jewish High Council, brought before Pilate and Herod, condemned, beaten and
scourged to the brink of death and had hung on a cross during the noon
day. And now after all the torture,
Jesus Christ was thirsty and this Centurion moved with compassion brought sour
wine to quench His thirst.

Once
Jesus breathed His last and yielded His Spirit the plan of salvation was now
complete. Jesus Christ had died on the
Cross of Golgotha, bearing the sins of the entire World. The ransom for all of mankind had been
paid. In the eyes of Satan, the victory
was his, he was doing a victory dance.
Jesus Christ was dead.

But
is the story complete? For Satan it is, for
the Centurion with Jesus life, death and Jesus story as he knew and understood
it was complete, for the disciples who witnessed His suffering and death, it
appears the story is complete, but for we who sit here tonight/today it isn’t
complete. The story has only begun. With Jesus Christ being nailed to the Cross,
suffering and dying for our sins the story is incomplete.

For
from the Old Testament prophets and even Jesus own words, the story is not
complete, because the story ends not with death, but with eternal life. Jesus Christ promised His disciples and we who
gather here today eternal life. And we
find eternal life through His death on the Cross for all of mankind. We also find eternal life when we confess
like the Centurion the truth that “Truly this was the Son of God”. We find eternal life when we look to the
Cross of Christ and understand that we are not only baptized into Jesus Christ
life, but also His death for us and ultimately the completion of the story of
salvation. But the rest of the story is
still three days away. Tonight/today we
with the Centurion confess the truth of Jesus divinity and await the rest of
the Gospel story of salvation that will be revealed in three days for all of
mankind, including all of us saints gathered here at Emmanuel to mourn Jesus
death on Calvary this Good Friday. AMEN.